EcoLink Archive
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News
’Tis the Season to Donate to the Ecology Center
You can still help the Ecology Center campaigns hit the ground running in the New Year AND get your 2007 tax-deduction by donating now! Your past support has helped us achieve so much from our Healthy Car and Healthy Toy online database releases to the Governor's executive directives on environmental justice and green chemistry. Please help us keep fighting for a healthy environment with your end-of-year gift today.
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HealthyToys.org Helps Holiday Shoppers
If you haven’t already visited HealthyToys.org, we urge you to check it out today! This new Ecology Center website, developed by the same folks who brought you HealthyCar.org, lists chemical test results for over 1,200 toys, jewelry items and other children’s products. And, the database is growing. In less than two weeks, over 4,000 toys were nominated for testing through the website, and as we test more products, we’ll keep posting the results online.
Some of our findings: Lead was detected in 35 percent of the products we tested overall and in 38 percent of the jewelry samples (504 total). For example, lead was detected at more than 6,700 parts per million (ppm) in certain animal figurines; 3,056 ppm in a Hannah Montana Pop Star Card Game pack; and 1,700 ppm in a pair of baby shoes. Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended 40 parts per million (ppm) of lead as the maximum that should be allowed in children’s products, while the federal recall standard used for lead in paint is 600 ppm!
But, it’s not just lead; other dangerous chemicals were found in toys. Cadmium was detected at levels greater than 100 ppm in 2.9 percent of products; arsenic was found at levels greater than 100 ppm in 2.2 percent of products; mercury was found above 100 ppm in 0.7 percent of products; and 47 percent of non-jewelry products tested were made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic, the worst plastic from an environmental health perspective because it can create hazards in its manufacture, product life, and disposal and contains additives that are dangerous to human health.
Of course, consumer interest in toys without added toxic chemicals will continue to grow beyond the holiday season, and HealthyToys.org also contains ways to advocate for changes in the ways we regulate harmful chemicals in children’s products. Visit the HealthyToys.org Take Action page and ask manufacturers to clean up their products and demand that lawmakers fix our broken chemical regulatory system.
Manufacturers will pay attention to consumer demand for healthier toys, so search before you shop, tell them how you feel, get your friends involved, and support the Ecology Center’s work for healthy toys.
Spread the Word!
back to topCheck out media coverage of HealthyToys.org
ABC News • Seattle Post • Washington Post
San Francisco Chronicle • AP Story on CNN Alternet
AM NY • Treehugger Wall Street Journal • CBS
Video clips:
Historic Agreement Reached on Fuel Economy!
The last two weeks have been a whirlwind for energy advocates, with the Congress passing the first new increase in vehicle fuel economy in over 32 years. Key to this breakthrough was the effort of House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Michigan Congressman John Dingell, who worked out final language that brought along the support of automakers, the UAW, and environmentalists for the historic new legislation.
The legislation increases fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks and also provides financial support for the industry and protections for jobs at small car production facilities. The new fuel economy provisions require automakers to meet an industry-wide average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020 — about a 40 percent increase — while also providing protections for jobs at small car production facilities and financial support for industry investments in new technologies.
The Ecology Center has been a leader in working for strong fuel economy standards that also protect jobs and help the industry retool. In 2005, we launched the Green Machines Tour toward this end, conducting outreach and developing policy solutions that help accomplish these twin goals of environmental and economic progress.
“The Dingell-Pelosi fuel economy agreement ensures that the next generation of fuel-efficient vehicles will be built here in the U.S.,” said Charles Griffith, Clean Car Campaign Director for the Ecology Center. “The U.S. automobile industry is now poised to lead the sector into a new era.”
In addition to the 35-mpg requirements, the new fuel economy legislation includes a provision proposed by the UAW that helps keep small car production in the U.S. The legislation also includes authorization for up to $25 billion in loan guarantees for retooling existing auto plants with new fuel-saving vehicles and components. The pact, part of a larger national energy bill, also includes new provisions to encourage advanced biofuels and energy efficiency. Unfortunately, the Senate removed House-passed provisions for a 15 percent Renewable Energy Standard and new tax-incentives for a wide range of clean energy industries, including wind, solar, biomass and carbon capture from coal plants.
If enacted, the 35-mpg fuel economy requirements should result in fuel savings of up to 1.1 million barrels of oil per day by 2020, with net savings to consumers of $22 billion per year.
back to topNational Retailer Goes Lead Free
A five year campaign by the Ecology Center to ease lead pollution caused by wheel-balance weights falling off vehicles onto roads and contaminating soil and water received a big boost in early December when a national retailer became the first to commit to eliminating lead weights from their operations.
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Steel wheel weights |
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Beginning in 2008, BFS Retail & Commercial Operations, LLC (BFRC), will make steel wheel-balance weights available to customers. Wheel weights are applied onto the wheels of vehicles when tires are installed to help the wheels balance properly and run smoothly. The move by BFRC will affect some 2,200 vehicle service centers across the U.S. and Canada — including Firestone Complete Auto Care, Tires Plus, ExpertTire and Wheel Works — and will replace millions of lead wheel weights each year with more ecologically sensitive steel weights.
A typical car or light truck carries more than one-half pound of lead in wheel weights. A U.S. Geological Survey study estimates that 2,000 tons of lead wheel weights fall off vehicles throughout the United States each year. The weights become abraded on the roadway and contribute to lead releases to the environment. Lead is harmful to human health and the environment so replacing lead wheel weights with a non-toxic alternative can prevent significant amounts of lead pollution.
BFRC is a subsidiary of Bridgestone Americas Holding, Inc., headquartered in Bloomingdale, Ill., and operates the largest number of company-owned automotive retail generalist stores in the world.
The Ecology Center’s Lead-Free Wheels Project, part of our Clean Car Campaign, was launched in 2003 following the Center’s release of its groundbreaking report, Getting the Lead Out, the first comprehensive examination of lead use in the auto industry. Over the years, it has partnered with full-service repair shops, service stations with repair facilities, tire retailers, and publicly owned vehicle fleets to provide lead-free alternatives for wheel weights. Lead-Free Wheels, as well as the Partnership for Mercury-Free Vehicles and HealthyCar.org, are part of the Ecology Center’s efforts to hold automakers accountable for their vehicle design and manufacturing decisions.
back to topThe Ecology Center Welcomes Melissa Sutton
By Lauren Darmanin
“When I found out about the Environmental Health position at the Ecology Center, I jumped at the chance to get involved in the fight to ban toxics,” said Melissa Sutton, new Environmental Health Associate and Communications Specialist at the Ecology Center. Melissa began in July 2007 as an Environmental Health Intern and was later hired full-time. “A major goal of mine is to expand our newsletter membership base through digital media to increase awareness of environmental issues in Michigan,” said Sutton.
Melissa oversees EcoLink and From the Ground Up, the Ecology Center’s electronic and print newsletters, and manages the Ecology Center web site. A current Ecology Center campaign that Melissa is particularly interested in is mercury’s developmental effects as a neurotoxin, although she finds it difficult to narrow her interests down to one issue.
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Melissa
at Artists Palette in Death Valley National Park |
Before coming to the Ecology Center, Melissa was employed as a desktop publisher for a real estate magazine for four years, and then she finished her B.S. at MSU. She managed the web site for the MSU Office of Campus Sustainability, and had an internship at the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, where she was active in state policy initiatives. Additionally, “in 1999 I drove the Hershey’s Kissmobile (partnered with the Children’s Miracle Network), through 14 eastern states to raise donations for local children’s hospitals,” said Sutton. “I met many children with autism, cancer and leukemia, which opened my eyes to the health effects of environmental toxins in children.”
When asked for suggestions on how to live a life that is easier on the environment, Melissa suggested that it is important to “consider pre-cycling when making purchases, such as buying food products without unnecessary packaging. I could go on and on, but here’s another good place to start: People need to act as conscious consumers and be aware of what additives, chemicals, etc, are in the products they purchase and the environment. Most importantly, they need to vote and be aware and knowledgeable of the people for whom they are voting.”
Melissa recently moved from Lansing to Ann Arbor. “I have a wonderful family, including a father who received a lung transplant from the U-M Hospital in 2004 after living with asbestosis and COPD for over a decade,” she says. Her favorite vacations include traveling to Costa Rica, Argentina and Alaska. Her hobbies include gardening, camping, kayaking, disc golfing, and chess.
Melissa Sutton may be contacted at 734-663-2400 ext. 112.
EcoLink — January 2008
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